A Polymath's Touch: A Midnighter's Sequel
by Ruby Thorn
Summary: Sequel to All's Fair in Love and War! This story revolves around the introduction of Dess into the Midnighters and how she helps them discover Midnight's secrets. Yet, Dess's relationship with Melissa is anything but friendly. Read prequel before this one


Dess hummed a made up tune to herself contentedly as she skimmed her school algebra textbook for some challenging problems. She was looking units ahead of where her honors class was, but there was still no sign of anything that would muddle Dess's brain even for a moment. Dess sighed heavily, slammed her textbook shut and furiously swiped a stray strand of blonde hair off her face. What was the point of being in honors if it wasn't even _hard_?

She braced her arms against her desk and pushed off, her swivel chair skidding across her small bedroom with her along for the ride. She stood up and walked over to her un-made bed. She slumped down into the comfortable heap of blankets, sheets and childhood stuffed animals and stared wearily at the ceiling above her. Dess let her conscious go and played a game she had made up as a little girl when she couldn't fall asleep at night.

In her half-trance Dess peered up at the ceiling, trying to find pictures up above, created by the shadows in her room. She found a bleary mermaid sitting on rock, a jumping dolphin, a ballerina, a-

A shudder filled Dess's room. She watched as a creeping stain of blue seemed to devour her ceiling, walls, floor, everything. Dess had been a Midnighter for over four moths now, enough time to progress from the sixth grade to the seventh, and still that feeling of time stopping around her left her breathless. She would never become prepared for it, she was sure.

Dess swung her legs over her bed and pulled her grass-stained sneakers on. Silently as she could she gathered up her steel filled backpack and slung it over her back. Dess smiled as she flinched at the noisy clanks the metal made. She kept having to constantly remind herself that she wouldn't wake her parents up- they were _frozen_.

Dess pushed her door open and slunk down the hall, preferring to use the front door rather then try to squeeze through her small window.

The fresh, still air outside soothed her. Not a breeze tainted the air, all of the breaths of wind stilled before they could finish blowing. Dess hurried over to her bike which was discarded on her brown lawn and hopped on, quickly pedaling down the road towards where she met up with Rex and Melissa every midnight. They only had an hour together and it took her ten minutes to reach that meeting place, and that was at a fast pace! One thing about being a Midnighter was it sure whipped you into shape!

Dess's backpack clanged noisily on her back, the sound distracting her. "shut up." She hissed to the sack. Why was Dess carrying around three pounds of scrap metal? Well, because Rex had asked her to. Steel scared away slithers and darklings, he had explained. It was always safe to bring some metal wherever you went. Dess smiled. It was typical of Rex to try and keep others safe. Rex also carried around a protective, noisy backpack, but Melissa on the other hand, refused to wear one. Her excuse was she already had to put with major amounts of head noise during the day, why should she have to listen to annoying clanking metal during midnight as well? Dess had rolled her eyes at that one. Melissa was so full of herself- she traveled around with Rex and Dess at midnight who were both carrying around clanging metal. It was obvious she would hear their back packs. She probably just didn't want to carry the heavy load.

Just when Dess felt her breath becoming burdened from the exercise, she reached the junk yard, the small group's gathering place. Rex and Melissa were already waiting out front, their bikes parked nearby. Melissa was glaring at her openly, her deep eyes narrowed in a lethal stare. Dess leaned her bike against the chain link fence and ventured over to the pair, panting. She studied Melissa for a moment before muttering "What?" through huge gasps of air.

"You're late." Rex answered calmly. He stood close to Melissa, his hand grasping the edge of her sweatshirt, like a protective mother.

"Only by a few minutes." Dess sarcastically shot back. Rex shrugged sullenly and motioned for her to get back on her bike. Rex always had something to show them during the midnight hour.

Dess crossed her arms stubbornly. "Nu-uh! I am _not_ riding anymore until I get a few minutes of rest."

Melissa looked icily back at her a pointed at the bike with a gloved hand. "Get on. Consider it time made up for being late." She said coldly. And with that, the psychic mounted her bike, kicked back the kick stand, and pedaled off, leaving Dess with Rex. Dess looked quizzically over at the boy, silently asking him about Melissa's behavior, but he just shrugged and swung his leg over his own beat-up bike. "Come on Dess." He called before taking off.

Dess grabbed her bike and grumbled, "Thanks for waiting," before speeding off to catch up with the inseparable duo. She sighed to herself softly. Dess had always been a social outcast, she'd never had many friends. Even now, when she had two people to hang out with, a really kind boy and…well….Melissa, Dess still felt like an outcast. Rex and the physco were too close. There was no room for her in their friendship.

As Dess pedaled quickly, fleetingly attempting to reach the two bicycling figures who seemed so far away, a thought jolted into her mind.

Midnight was a mystery to all three of them…they knew nothing about it at all, except for the scrap of knowledge about the steel.

What if Dess could decode midnight? What if she could use her talent as a polymath to help the team? They would accept her then! All Dess had to do was a little extra research and their acceptance was her's!

Dess smiled lightly, and pedaled faster. She was sure this would work, she was sure.

**Okay, sorry it took me forever to post this but I had my other FF (which still isn't finished… XO) and forgot about this. But now I'm back! And you can enjoy the sequel which has Dess! Have fun!**

**Much love,**

**~Ruby Thorn **


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